In search of translational norms

《In search of translational norms》由会员上传分享，免费在线阅读，更多相关内容在学术论文-天天文库。

1、InsearchoftranslationalnormsThecaseofshiftsinlexicalrepetitioninArabic–EnglishtranslationsRasoulal-KhafajiUniversityofPetra,Jordan…ashardasonemighttry,itisimpossibletoreproducenetworksoflexicalcohesioninatargettextwhichareidenticaltothoseofthesourcetext.(Baker1992:206;italicsadded)1.Introduction

2、Theobjectiveofthispaperistwofold:(a)totrytoarriveatsomepreliminarygen-eralizationsconcerningthenormswhichgovernthetypeanddirectionoftrans-lationshiftsintheareaoflexicalrepetition;and(b)toillustratetheaboveattemptbyanalyzinganddiscussinganEnglishtranslationofanArabicliterarytext.Ishallthereforebe

3、specificallyaddressingtheissueofhowlexicalchainsinArabictextsarerenderedinEnglish;thebasicargumentpostulatedbeingthateverytransla-tionisboundtoresultinshiftsbothinthetypeandsizeoflexicalrepetition.ThehighleveloftoleranceoflexicalrepetitionintheArabiccultureisreflect-edinthetextureofitstextsbythe

4、importantrhetoricalandtextualrolesassignedtothisphenomenon.Bythesametoken,lexicalrepetitionseemstobealmostal-waysfunctionalintheArabicliterarypolysystem.Conversely,Englishrhetoricdiscourageslexicalrepetitionandtoleratesitonlywhenmotivatedandusedasafigureofspeech(cf.Johnstone1991:4andHatim1997:32

5、).Thistextual-cul-turaldiscrepancybetweenArabicandEnglishisexpectedtohaveabearingonboththetranslationprocessesandtheirproductswheneverthetwolanguagesareinvolved.Variousstudiesoftextstranslatedfromdifferentsourcelanguageshavetenta-tivelyrevealedthatavoidinglexicalrepetitionseemstobeacommontransla

6、tionalnorm(seeBen-Ari1998:2).Besidesbeingworthwhileinthemselves,translationstudieslikethesecancontributetotranslationtheorybyprovidingatesting-Babel52:1(2006),39–65.issn0521–9744/e-issn1569–9668©FédérationdesTraducteurs(fit)RevueBabel40Rasoulal-Khafajigroundwhichmayleadtothevalidation,refutation

7、,or—asismostlythecase—tothemodificationofthesetheories.Itwould,therefore,beilluminatingtofindoutifthispostulatedrepetition-avoidancepolicy,justmentionedabove,appliestoArabic–Englishtranslationsand,ifso,howitisactuallyimpleme